The towel from 'Alcarràs' is from Las Pepitas

Fifty or a hundred years from now, if a costume designer or wardrobe supervisor for a film needs to dress actors as people did in 2026, they will most likely have a serious problem. Bea Castelló is very clear about this: “Nowadays, nobody keeps clothes. Almost everything is of poor quality and disposable. It’s rare for someone to wear clothes they wore two seasons ago.” This wasn't the case before. She knows what she's talking about. Her business, Las Pepitas, which she inherited from her mother, has been serving the fascinating field of clothing for many years. Both for wearing and for the home.

Her shop in Gràcia is almost overflowing. Mountains of clothes of all kinds and narrow aisles to navigate. Bea knows where everything is. She knows what she has and what she doesn't have. She knows what she can offer, which eras, which styles, which sizes. An archive within her head. Today she has a visit from a theater director from Mallorca looking for costumes for the actors in the production she is preparing. She shows us the white towel with colorful stains that was rented to her for Alcarràs and also one of the Maletes de Tulse-Luper from Peter Greenaway's film. Everything she has is quality clothing that many people have kept at home – hence the difference with our current times – and which Las Pepitas have acquired, inventoried, and stored.

Tablecloths, sheets, curtains, all kinds of household linens, bedspreads, all kinds of dresses for men, women, boys, girls, babies, christening and first communion clothes, fashion accessories, hats, belts, wallets, glasses, buttons, costume jewelry, tulle, scarves, threads, lace... From the 19th century to the nineties, a very wide temporal range that covers trends, fashions, traditions, and all sorts of tangible and intangible imagery.

The initiator of the business was her grandfather, Juan Sánchez, a specialist in furniture restoration and piano varnishing. Also in antique ceramics. Coming from Caravaca de la Cruz, at fourteen he was already in Barcelona making a living. He also knew how to cultivate a good passion for textiles, a passion that he passed on to his daughter, Pepita Sánchez, Bea's mother. She was the one who, in the eighties, decided to open a shop on Alfons XII street, to give scope and outlet to the clothes and antiques that filled her life so much. And Bea, from a very young age, felt captivated by such a magnetic, so addictive profession. “I immediately liked the idea of going to houses and finding old clothes to give them new life”. At fifteen she was already head over heels in it.

They don't just have clothes, but also a wide selection of household items, from perfumery, hairdressing, leisure, magazines, glassware and various trousseau. The clientele of Las Pepitas – that's how their mother's name stuck with them as a generic and endearing name for the business – are not just cinema and theatre. Also that particular client who wishes to dress in a special way, with personality, with a vintage look. “In London, for example, they are far ahead of us. For many years now, there have been people there who like to dress in the 40s, 50s or 60s styles,” reflects Bea. Here, on the other hand, we move more by trends, by a kind of posturing, because it's what's in. “Here we drink a lot of wine, right?”, “Yes”, “And do you know many people who drink wine from an old glass that rings like this?”. And she gives me the demonstration of the driiiiing. “Well, that's it, that says it all”.

Indeed, many do not attach importance to drinking wine from an Ikea glass, a plastic one, or a proper goblet. Well, the same happens with clothes. "You have to know how to value the object and the old piece of clothing. If you know how to value it, you will surely find pleasure in it, you will like to fix it, you will enjoy it as it deserves." Foreign clientele, as a general rule, is more likely to have this sixth sense incorporated. It is a matter of criteria, of good taste.